By Annie Weinstock When Select Bus Service (SBS) first started in NYC, the city and the MTA referred to it as New York City’s Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) program. I and other technical folks, who were involved in designing and researching high-capacity BRT systems in other places, were not comfortable…

By Annie Weinstock It’s a familiar trope: New York is not London or Paris or Amsterdam. This phrase, rather than being used to vaunt those things truly great about New York, is most often used as a defense of its mediocrity. NYC is not alone in this kind of thinking…

By Annie Weinstock Canal Street in Manhattan shares the incompatible functions of being the main commercial street through Chinatown and the most direct link for cars and trucks traveling from Brooklyn to New Jersey. …

NIMBY opponents are throwing everything they can at the plan. But they aren’t looking at the real benefits. by Annie Weinstock This article originally appeared on Streetsblog NYC and is republished here. Just before the pandemic, I moved to the part of Brooklyn where Carroll Gardens meets Gowanus. Although Smith Street closer to Atlantic Avenue is a restaurant haven, near where I live the street is dead, housing…

By Walter Hook and Annie Weinstock Until March 2020, Bogotá’s TransMilenio, perhaps the most well-known BRT in the world, was regularly carrying 2.4 million daily passengers, more than most European subways. It had been so popular that its main problem for years was persistent overcrowding on several corridors. The system…

By Walter Hook and Annie Weinstock Public transport in South Africa is at a crossroads. Life is slowly returning to normal, with daily COVID-19 cases under 1,300. Ridership has returned to about 70% of its pre-COVID levels at least in some areas. National public transport policy, however, is in turmoil. …

By Annie Weinstock The Flushing Main Street Busway in Queens, that opened this January, operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 24/7 operations for any changes to streets which deprioritize cars, is surprisingly rare in the US. …

By Annie Weinstock and Walter Hook On the same day in 2003 that London kicked off its congestion charge, Transport for London (TfL) put 300 new buses on its streets, began running several new bus routes into the congestion zone, and upped the frequency on some existing routes. Within the…

By Walter Hook, Annie Weinstock, and Larson Holt In 2016, following a global trend, MTA New York City Transit (NYCT) embarked on a borough-by-borough Bus Network Redesign. Rapid progress was made under Andy Byford’s leadership. Excellent reports detailing existing conditions were completed for the Bronx , Queens, and Brooklyn. A…